3 out of 4 stars
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Blowing Smoke is a crime story written by George Hiegel.
Told in the first person perspective of the main protagonist, the book is about Neal Caterski, a former police officer turned private detective. The story begins when Neal and his partner Alexandria receive a phone call from Gina Wilson. Gina is the sister of Donna Winters, one of Neal’s former clients and wife of Sonny Winters, one of the richest men in Wannabe, Pennsylvania. In behalf of her sister who is currently on the run from her husband who, she believes, will kill her when he gets the chance, Gina expresses the intention to hire Neal and Alex to gather evidence of Sonny's illegal activities that will put him away for good. With ten thousand dollars upfront payment, Neal and Alex find it difficult to turn the case down. However, even before the investigation began, Donna is found dead from a single bullet to her head. Apparently, Donna killed herself.
Despite the official verdict, Neal continues with his own investigation and finds evidence of a cover up. The effect of Donna’s death on Neal and his obsession to pursue the investigation make Alex question whether Donna is just Neal’s former client or is there something more to the story that Neal is willing to put his life at stake just to solve the case.
The plot, though not very original, is very interesting, and the manner it was written makes the reader glued to the pages. The best part of the book is the author’s remarkable descriptions of scenes. Moreover, the characters are so well depicted that the reader can almost hear them talking and see them walking down the street.
However, though the plot was undoubtedly good, there were no adequate back stories to explicate the circumstances that led to the present predicament. Most of the situations were just the way they were, no elaboration as to why they came to be. There were no detailed explanations for the hostility, for the indifference and even the supposed passion, which I believe to be the reason why there was a case. Though excessive flashbacks can be confusing, one or two may have been helpful in this story. Moreover, none of the characters were likable. They seemed to be all confused and hurt and angry all at the same time. Because of insufficient back stories, the confusion, hurt and anger were not elucidated making it difficult to empathize with the characters.
Finally, there are plenty of errors within the entire book including incorrect use of words (it’s instead of its, their instead of there), missing apostrophe (Winters instead of Winters’) and missing words, among others. Also, the incorrect use of subject and object pronouns (I/me), the prevalent use of fragments instead of complete sentences and the use of sentences that begin with conjunctions ‘and’ and ‘but’ may be vexing to some readers.
Despite my issues with the book, I enjoyed reading it and I do believe that other readers may find it, except for the grammar and typo errors, appealing. I therefore give this book the rate of 3 out of 4 stars and I recommend it to crime and detective stories enthusiasts.
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Blowing Smoke
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